Dating Services

Most dating websites have several landing pages for visitors (these are web pages visitors are meant to enter the dating site with). Some are completely dependent on the actual URL while others may take into consideration other criteria like what country the visitor may be coming from. I notice the other day that OkCupid has revamped their homepage. Gone are the featured profiles as seen in the right top photo. It looks like OkCupid decided to simplify things as seen in the bottom left snapshot. On the left column OkCupid has the member signup area along with 4 quotes from leading publications like Time and the New York Post. The main section of the page is reserved as a place for new members to signup. There is a hand drawn image of a woman saying "Welcome to OkCupid! We just need a few things to get started." and she is pointing at the profile questions which ask the Gender, Orientation and your Relationship Status with a Next button which continues the sign up process.

I wonder if this new homepage is converting better for them than the old one. Does straight to the point quotes like "The Google of online dating" and the start of the create a profile form get more people to sign up for the dating service than seeing a bunch of members profiles in a gallery format? It seems like a lot of sites now days have moved away from the show what members we have approach. Most now usually show a stock photo of a couple having fun along with the initial questions for the profile.

To find out more about this dating site, read our OkCupid review.

Using Facebook as a dating tool can be complicated if you do not watch what you doing. In many ways it's great, especially in the beginning. You have all these friends, and friends of friends that can vouch for you that you are a great guy or gal. This makes meeting people easy to do.

There is also a downside to using Facebook like a dating site. Here are 3:

1. Relationships and Breakups Are Public

The main problem with Facebook and dating is, it is public. Sure you can now hide information from your friends and dates but it can get extremely complicated to do with all the privacy rules which only a dedicated Facebook expert is going to know how to use. Every step of a relationship on Facebook is public from changing your relationship status (and hoping your partner reciprocates) to the banter that goes back and forth between people who have just discovered love. On the other end, breakups are just as public and can lead to some embarrassing moments for all involved.

CNN Health recently took a look at finding love online for singles that are disabled or have other health problems. Singles with health problems find that the larger generic dating sites do not necessarily cater to their relationship needs. Most profiles from these dating sites do not ask health related issues except to find out how often someone may exercise or the body type they may have. This means people with health problems cannot be up front and mention their condition on their profile unless it is within the essay questions. The problem with this is people who are searching for matches may not realize the person they plan on communicating with has health issues. This may not be considered a deal breaker by the person, but then again it might be, which can result in an awkward email message and results in time wasted by both members.

The solution to this problem is dating sites designed for people specifically with health problems. Searching on the internet today you can find dating sites for people with sexual transmitted diseases, disabilities and mental health conditions. Members on these dating services are open about their health problems because they want to meet someone who will accept them for who they are. These members also find it is sometimes better to partner with someone with similar health problems because they can better understand what they are going through.

With these new types of online dating sites, singles with health problems do not have to worry anymore about when they have to break it to the person they are dating about their condition. These niche dating sites make it easier by having members be upfront about their health conditions.

For the full story about health and online dating, head over to CNN. The only dating site at the moment we have a review for someone with health problems is PositiveSingles.com. This popular dating site is for singles with a sexual transmitted disease. Online dating sites for people who are disabled are becoming more popular and we plan to take a look at a few soon to give our recommendations on which one too join.

Some of you may have notice in the last month or so that eHarmony has added a new feature to their dating service called "Something to Talk About". This feature is designed to help break the ice and to get conversations started between matches much easier.

To setup "Something to Talk About" you first need to visit the "My Profile" tab found when you log into eHarmony. Once on the tab, take a look at the "In My Own Words" section. Here you will find the link "Something to Talk About". Currently there are eleven topics that you can answer one or more questions on. Sample topics include sports, Music, Movies and Leisure. Questions under these topics can be as easy to answer by checking off what sports you like, to actually typing in a short answer.

So when does "Something to Talk About" get used? When you are viewing your profile matches and when a match has also filled out "Something to Talk About" you are presented with a nice block on the right side of the page that shows all the things you and your match have in common.

To find out more about this dating site read our eHarmony review.

The Game Show Network has a new dating TV show called Baggage and it is hosted by none other than Jerry Springer. The show first aired on April 19 and runs weeknights at 6:30pm / 5:30pm central time. Perfectmatch.com is a featured partner of the GSN and will be featured on the show as well. So what is the half hour show Baggage about? It involves 3 contestants and one dater. Jerry Springer coaxes the dater to choose among the others who should reveal their hidden flaws, what people would consider relationship baggage and what most would keep hidden well into a relationship.

Here is Jerry explaining in his own words what his new show is all about:

Note: Unfortunately the source to the video and/or image which once was displayed here has since been removed by the authors for an unknown reason.

If you are a fan of the Jerry Springer show (which is in its 19th year by the way and one of the longest running TV shows) you should enjoy Jerry's new show Baggage. For more on this new dating show you can check out the Baggage website on the Game Show Network. For further details about the dating site featured on Baggage you can read our Perfectmatch.com review.

The OkCupid blog has been a hit lately in the media with such posts about Picture Myths and how Race Affects Dating. Their recent post about why you shouldn't pay for online dating garnered a number of negative blog posts in return about OkCupids research on the subject (and not from other dating sites).

The Strange to Say blog has a well written post called "OKCupid’s Misfired Arrow". In it he points out several flaws in OkCupids thinking. The first thing he points out is that OKCupid offers a paid component to their service as well called the A-List. This omission on OkCupids part in the article is surprising and makes you wonder what is OKCupid really trying to say here? Are they saying that you're stupid to pay for a dating service, except if it is theirs? Strange to Say had a good comparison for this. To them it would be like GM saying not to buy cars from Ford or Chrysler since they are American made and then not telling the public that their cars (GM) are American made as well.

Another good point that the Strange to Say blog presented was that OKCupid says paid dating sites do not have the interest of their members in mind when they join their site. OkCupid says their main goal is to keep you paying for a membership as long as possible instead of finding the member a match as quick as possible. The funny thing is this logic also works against supposedly free dating sites. Free dating sites make most of their money from Ads being displayed on their site. The more members viewing ads, the more money they will make. Because of this, it seems free dating sites may have a conflict of interest as well. A good example of this is when PlentyOfFish removed the instant messenger from their site (see Story) just over a year ago. The reason POF did this was because they wanted members using the website and mail system (where they can increase ad impressions) instead of communicating with other members via Instant Messenger.

The Unofficial eHarmony Blog also has a good article on the OkCupid blog post. While their post deals with more on what OkCupid says about eHarmony it does poke a few additional holes in OkCupids theory.